Journal of the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages (Jan 2006)
A Retrospective and a Look into the Future
Abstract
Look at us! From a handful of people who gathered around one conference table at the National Foreign Language Center in 1990, we are now an organization that has yearly conferences. We have a journal. We are networked. We are developing an amazing number of resources. Our institutes have become more numerous and our influence is spreading. No longer do most people look at us oddly when we mention the less commonly taught languages. The word "exotic" has pretty much disappeared from the common conversation. We have gone from desperately looking for beginning materials in so many languages-whether they are in Arabic, Zulu, Indonesian, Chinese, or Hindi-to where we are clamoring for advanced teaching materials in many of them. We have been developing frameworks for learning and teaching. We are mining the advantages of technology. Undertaking such endeavors means to me that the field of less commonly taught languages is formidably addressing its needs, unlike the sounds of muted desperation that characterized so many of our early gatherings.
